Ray Ansin Art Glass

Above: Rose Gardens in Glass, Ray Ansin

Ray Ansin was one of the first New Zealand glassblowers to produce art glass, way back in the mid-1960s. By 1969 he was sufficiently well-known to be attracting commissions, and his most notable commission from this period was a novelty glass coffee-set. This set was remarkable in that it could only be used left-handedly. If you tried to drink from the mugs using your right hand, a hole to the left of the handle made this impossible! Added to this, the coffee pot also worked backwards - you had to hold the spout and pour via the handle.

In 1969 Ray had built his first glass tank, at Ngaio, Wellington. He was encouraged by a local potter, Keith Morton who had just returned from the USA and had been inspired by the growing studio glass movement in the States. Together they experimented with making glass using a tank, having a great deal of fun without much productivity. Ray preferred lamp working techniques. He first began exhibiting dimensional sculptures in glass in Wellington in the early 1970s. In 1976 he held an exhibition named "A parcel of Paintings" in Wellington (he is a painter as well as a glass artist). At this exhibition he displayed a series of glass spheres with solid glass spines radiating up to 200mm from the central ball. These must have looked amazing, because there were small coloured light bulbs inside each sphere which made the spines glow at their tips, and the whole system was connected to a musical presentation such that each lamp flashed or glowed in response to the music.

Known for his rustic inventiveness Ray once resorted to using a kerosene blow torch at the Regent Theatre in Greymouth to melt and blow glass christmas balls at a public demonstration (1979). Among Ray's other notable exhibition pieces was "Time bomb in a bottle" shown at the Academy of Fine Arts, and "Bottle bottle bottled..." which is shown below and was highly commended in the prestigious Phillips Studio Glass Show in 1985.

Above: "Bottle bottle bottled ..." by Ray Ansin, 1985

This amazing glass creation has 14 bottles each blown inside each other. There are no joins and every bottle is loose and moves. It was one of an edition of five.

In the early 1980s Tony Kupfer arrived on the scene in New Zealand from the USA, and the studio glass ball started rolling in this country. Since 1995 Ray has been making superb millifiore beads like the ones shown on this page. Today he has a studio overlooking Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand.

Above: "Gardens in Glass" beads by Ray Ansin

Ray originally trained as a chemist and his first job was as an analyst in the milk industry. He became a glassblower almost by accident. Whilst attending a course in Lower Hutt where Jim Judd was teaching the glassblowing module of the course, Jim fell ill and Ray was asked to supervise the remaining four days of the course. Some eight months later Jim Judd was going abroad for six months and he asked Ray to fill in during his absence as scientific glassblower with the Institute of Nuclear Sciences. And so Ray Ansin became a glassblower.

Above: "Garden of Daisies in Glass" by Ray Ansin

A career change later found Ray working on historical research projects for the Historic Places Trust; and yet another career change took him to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries starting as a Technical Officer but rapidly promoted into the scientist gradings. Throughout his complex career, Ray has worked as an artist and carried out private research. His career changes were interspersed with periods when Ray worked full time on his art. But his art is not just in glass. It includes painting, pottery, jade carving as well as millefiori glass. And he has been recognised and awarded in each of these fields; indeed one of his jade pieces is shown in Russell J. Becks book "Mana Pounamu New Zealand Jade" which was published in 2002.

Above: "Spring Flower Gardens in Glass" by Ray Ansin

Using colored glass imported from around the world, Ray melts and shapes the glass to form petals and staymens. These pieces are melted together to form a flower and then drawn into a long thin cane. This cane is then cut into many small sections known as "millefiori" or "thousand flowers". Each tiny flower is corporated into a glowing red hot bead. Layer upon layer is built up of colour detail between coatings of clear crystal. Some of Ray Ansin's paperweight-beads have over 14 separate layers.

References and Further Reading

1: Mana Pounamu New Zealand Jade by J. Becks, published 2002. This book includes an example of Ray Ansin's jade carving.

Ray Ansin is one of the artists featured in the author's book about New Zealand Glass. This book covers both extensive historical information and current glass artists in New Zealand, with some superb photographs and explanatory text.

INFORMATION about New Zealand Glass !
Including many original catalog pictures and dozens of photographs.
NOW available - this is the new second edition of this book and it covers the fascinating history of glass in New Zealand, the story of Crown Crystal Glass, NZ bottles and an overview of contemporary New Zealand glass artists.
Available as a paperback or as a Kindle book.

INFORMATION about Pirelli Glass!
A new book on Pirelli Glass. This is the second part of the London Lampworkers Trilogy covering Pirelli Glass.

And if you didn't read the first part of this Trilogy, you can take a look here:

INFORMATION about New Zealand Glass !
Including many original catalog pictures and dozens of photographs.
NOW available - this is the new second edition of this book and it covers the fascinating history of glass in New Zealand, the story of Crown Crystal Glass, NZ bottles and an overview of contemporary New Zealand glass artists.
Available as a paperback or as a Kindle book.

If you have any questions about glass that you think we can help with, please ask at the Glass Club Message Board.
And special thanks to all of you who share your knowledge by answering questions on the Message Board.

No material from this website may be copied or reproduced without written permission from Angela M. Bowey. Full acknowledgement of the author and Glass Museum URL MUST be included, and copying any pictures is forbidden. Please respect our copyright.URL to this page:
http://www.theglassmuseum.com/ansin.htm